HTC Vive Review

by Beth Divine•24 Jan 2018

The HTC Vive, representing HTC’s first foray into the world of virtual reality, is the most expensive but this is deservedly so as it has been lauded as 'one of the most accomplished headsets to date' according to www.pocket-lint.com – an opinion agreed with by many virtual reality aficionados. There are two base units that attach to points in the room that you will be gaming in. These monitor your movements and track your position, preventing you from walking into walls and potentially hurting yourself. The Vive works so well because the headset and controllers are positively speckled with sensors that track your head, eye and hand movements, all this information ensuring that you enjoy a seamless, and authentically immersive virtual reality experience. These sensors also help to smooth out unevenness between the real world and the virtual one which can, in other headsets, be responsible for causing motion sickness.

The Reality

HTC Vive lives up to its initial promise with reviewers struggling to express quite how good the user experience is. One reviewer raved that ‘it’s like trying to explain film to someone who’s only ever seen still pictures’, and indeed, the quality is far ahead of anything on offer by HTC’s competitors. The headset is super comfortable and fits snugly with no intrusive light leakage to disrupt the virtual reality experience. HTC Vive needs to be paired with a powerful gaming computer to work to its best and comes with two hand-snug easy-to-use controllers. Of all the virtual reality products available, HTC feels the most comfortable and, as promised, has the least glitches or incidents of motion sickness (caused by the brain being told that it is moving by the eyes but that it is staying still by the rest of the body). Chaperone mode ensures that you stay inside the sensed gaming area by throwing faint blue walls over your virtual world. As HTC Vive has a connection with Steam’s Valve, the game library is excellent, especially for virtual reality offerings. Games are exciting, bursting with personality and charm, and offer enough engagement to keep you coming back for more day after day. As will all virtual reality platforms, there is more content being produced and released every day, so there will be plenty to keep you entertained for a very long time.

It is perhaps logical that the best virtual reality outfit is the most expensive. But HTC Vive is only a little more expensive while being a lot better – by a substantial margin – than its competitors, even those who are quite close in price. There is good access to games and apps, with more being introduced every day. Assuming you can afford it, there is no reason not to invest in a Vive, and a lot of reasons why doing so would be hugely sensible in the long run.